Netflix’s Insatiable
Does The Show Endorse Fat-Shaming?
Insatiable is a dark comedy in the vein of Heathers, a romantic and subversive tale about teenage love and killing everybody at school. A TV adaptation of Heathers was developed and completed, but unceremoniously pulled from The Paramount Network ahead of release and currently has no plans to air in the United States. Naturally, in today’s hyper-sensitive culture, the premise of Insatiable, a Netflix Original Series, has ruffled a few feathers.
The show is about Patty (Debby Ryan), an overweight teenage girl who is constantly bullied for her appearance. After getting beat up by a stranger in the parking lot of a convenience store, she is sent to the hospital with a broken jaw, which has the serendipitous side effect of significantly altering her diet. When she returns to Masonville High several months later, she is thin, glammed-up, and looks like she could own the school. However, instead of joining a clique, or befriending her old bullies, or even moving past her grievances, Patty only has one goal on her mind: revenge.
Despite not having seen the show, certain groups have already called on Netflix to cancel the series before it debuts, accusing the program of endorsing fat shaming, since the lead character is a fat girl who becomes thin and is then capable of taking charge of her destiny. We haven’t seen the show either, but it looks like the show is already on the same page as the protestors, since the premise centers around a girl who takes revenge on those who fat-shamed her in the past. She loses weight, not by choice, but as a side effect of being laid-up in the hospital with a broken jaw, and she is disgusted by the people who like her more now that she’s skinny than they did when she was fat… And she’s gonna teach them a lesson in basic human decency.
As a culture, we are prone to knee-jerk reactions without understanding the full context of why we are outraged. We saw it when an alt-right rabble-rouser dug up some nearly decade-old tweets in which prolific Hollywood film director James Gunn made some really bad jokes about a variety of taboo subjects. Despite having apologized numerous times in the past for his standoffish sense of humor, and has since evolved as an entertainer and as a human being, Disney made the unprecedented decision to fire the writer/director, essentially capitulating to the whims of the alt-right, a fringe political group comprised of peddlers in fake news, internet conspiracies, and regressive political ideologies.
Meanwhile, the story being shared on pop culture sites is “James Gunn Fired for Inappropriate Tweets,” completely ignoring the greater context. Gunn, an overtly anti-Trump artist, was targeted in a politically-motivated hitjob, and Disney took the bait and were tricked into pulling the trigger on one of their own. Tricked, just like any Twitter user who leaped at the opportunity to scream “Shame!” without thinking about why they were casting judgement, only that they could pretend to have the moral high ground over somebody else, if only for a moment.
Netflix should not pull the plug on Insatiable the way Paramount cut the cord on Heathers. Based on the trailer for the series, Insatiable is not a typical “fat girl gets skinny and popular” story the way Twitter reactionaries are trying to suggest. In fact, it seems like it could be the opposite, a righteous tale of high school revenge and knocking bullies down several notches, and maybe knocking out some of their teeth in the process. Insatiable is a black comedy, the genre which most finds itself under fire by humorless rubes with no grasp of the ideas of context, subtext, satire, and uncomfortable humor.
Based on the trailer, Insatiable is a black comedy with larger-than-life sensibilities and a willingness to dive headfirst into uncomfortable territory. We can’t wait to watch the show when it premieres – hopefully – August 10 on Netflix.
…And while we’re at it, can Netflix pick up the rights to the Heathers TV series?
